New Life
by Bookluver343121
Summary: Twilight set in real world - with different characters. R&R and a little OOC/AU. First fanfic so please give this a try! Rated T for fluff
1. The Start

**Hi! This is my first fanfic! Please it a try and review! :) **

**Disclaimer: *Recites it* I am not Stephenie Meyer... BUT... I think I do own the characters. xD **

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** Chapter 1 - The Start **:

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_Beep - beep - beep._

I pushed the dusty old comforter off of my body. Then I slowly turned my head towards the beeping. _Oh crap! School today!_ I quickly jumped out of my bed, stumbling forward and wincing at the cold floor, as I ran to my bathroom. Quickly yet thoroughly, I combed through my light brown, tangled, curly, shoulder - length hair. I looked up in the mirror to see my face. I touched my pale face, sighing with frustration. _Oh dear God_, I thought. _Ugh, should I put some makeup on...? No, just be simple today... _I kept thinking_... Eh, whatever. Doesn't matter. I won't fit in, anyways, so it doesn't matter._ Soon enough, I gave up and headed out of the house.

On my way out, I grabbed a granola bar, too anxious to stay at home for the first day of Arizona High School. "Bye, Mom!," I yelled back into the house. And then I sniffed the air outside. It was so dry! ... And... Ugh, the sun! The sun was brightly shining in the sky, not at all making me feel comfortable. I missed the soft rain constantly falling on my face and the green trees which felt protective around me. I slowly walked to my car, sighing as I saw how beautiful it was. Well of course it was only a Corolla, but I'd just gotten my driver's license, and I wanted a car badly. But I couldn't admire my car for long, since the heat was beating down on my face. As soon as I got in the car, I turned the air conditioning on as high as it would go and started moving away from my house. My family and I had just moved to Phoenix, Arizona, from Forks, Washington - one of the rainiest places on the planet- a few months ago; and yes, Twilight was taken place there, too. But, I won't start on that right now... Or else I would go on forever and ever on that topic. Anyways, I didn't have any siblings, which meant that I was lonely most of the time. Same with school, I didn't have very many friends. To be honest, I only had one, but the last time I had checked in with her - before I was leaving, to tell her the big news: me moving to Phoenix- she somehow sounded happy that I was leaving. Now here I was, starting a new high school. But, I didn't think that I would fit in this high school, either. For instance, I'm always stumbling and am absolutely horrible at sports, just like Bella. What's more is that I don't have the necessary hand eye coordination to do anything in P.E., but stand in a very far corner and keep my hands free. So that's basically me. All clumsy and embarrassed and blushes _a lot_.

Finding the school wasn't that hard. Of course anybody could find it easily because of the long - stretched fences and a huge board saying "Welcome to Arizona High School". As the parking lot came to my view, I gasped. It was bigger than my old high school. I sighed, shaking my head, then drove my car through the parking lot, searching for a place to park, even though it was practically empty. Instead of circling around too much, I parked in a corner, right in front of the school. Hopefully it wasn't the restricted area. I got out of my cooled - down car, unwillingly, and went out in the sun. I looked up, again, to see the sky. It was a perfect cloudless blue, with a glowing sun shining in the middle of the sky. Then, looking down I realized that I had to go inside the office to check my schedule. Great, this is going to be amazing. _First day of Arizona High... Good luck Annabel._

I walked up the path, created by rocks, till the sidewalk came to an end. I looked up to see the door, opened it, and went inside.

A rush of cool air blew to my face, making my hair fly around me. My hands flew to my face, moving the hair out of my eyes. Then I took a deep breath. _Okay, it's going to be fine._ I dragged my feet up to the counter and cleared my throat. The lady sitting at the counter looked up at me.

"Can I help you?" She asked politely. She had a red sleeveless shirt on and a black capri. Her face was wrinkled and it looked like she was in her fifties.

"Um, can I have my schedule, please, I'm Annabel Whitman." I informed her.

"Okay, just a second." Her eyes lit with acknowledgment. Surely I had been talked about... A girl moving from Forks, Washington, an alien. I looked around the room to find out her name, to thank her later for helping me. I roamed my eyes over the desk and finally found her name: Sheryl Thompson. Sheryl went through a pile of papers, finding my name at last.

"Ah, here it is." She spoke out loud, clearly happy to find my schedule in a pile big enough to hide a baby in. She got up and came around the counter to stand by my side. Sheryl gave me a map and showed me where my classes were and which route to take. After she was done explaining to me, she wished me good luck. I thanked her, knowing that her good luck was wasted because it usually tended to avoid me, and headed back to my car.

I pulled open the door and quickly sat inside. I shot a glance at the clock. _Hm, I still had fifteen more minutes or so, I'll just look through my schedule and try to memorize it._ I tried to memorize my schedule and where the classes were at the same time.

_ 1. Math - Room: 196_

_2. P.E. - Room: Gym_

_3. Science - Room: 1047_

_4. Social Studies - Room: 121_

_5. Lunch _

_6. English - Room: 845_

_7. Spanish - Room: 621_

_8. Empty_

I finally remembered my schedule and then glanced at the clock again. _Oh shit. Class is starting in like two minutes._ Pushing open my door, and remembering to bring my schedule with me - I still didn't believe myself enough that I had the schedule memorized - I ran to the main entrance of the school.

I hadn't noticed before, but a lot of the cars now were pretty much like my car, some of them even older and some of them were even... Beautiful. When I tore my eyes off of the cars, unwillingly, I saw a few people still getting out of their cars and headed inside the school. _No one is going to bite me,_ I lied to myself and headed inside.


	2. Arizona Arrows

**A/N: Since I had this chapter already done, I thought: Why not post it? So, here it is. It's longgg, lol. Enjoy! See you down there!**

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** Chapter 2 - Arizona Arrows**:

The school inside was really spacious. The color blue and gold were painted on the walls, with pictures of arrows all over the place._ Hm, funny that their mascot was arrows._ But I liked it. Looking around I saw banners were posted everywhere, wherever there was space to stick them on. Some were for homecoming... Which won't be till October... And other's were just for random clubs. I couldn't stay for long and look because I heard the school bell._ Jeez, can't they just give me break?! Stupid bell._ I muttered under my breath.

As I got through the hallways, I realized I got to the center of the school. Where was my class?! I looked at my schedule again, realizing that there were room numbers. I looked up, and saw that there were different hallway numbers, too. _Yeesh. How big was this school?_ I finally found someone to help me find my class and soon got there.

When I got in the class, the teacher wasn't even there. _Phew! At least I won't be marked tardy._ All the seats were filled up except the ones in the very back. I decided to sit there. It wasn't until later when the teacher came and spoke my name.

"Annabel Whitman, are you here?" The teacher, Ms. Houseman, squinted through her glasses, looking around the room, clearly looking for me. Everybody turned their heads to look in my direction.

"Um, that's me." I squeaked in a high voice. I cleared me throat. _Oh my lord!_ _I sounded like a mouse._

"Please come up to the front of the room and introduce yourself." _Ugh. This was seriously insane! Why would someone make me do that?_ I stumbled my way to the front of the room.

I made my speech, it wasn't really a speech, though, but I did it. I stammered and blushed a lot. When I did finish I almost ran back to my seat, keeping my head down and feeling the ringing in my ears. After I could breathe evenly, I looked up and saw this girl smiling at me. I smiled back as convincingly as I could and looked back down at the sheet which the teacher had given me. _Calculus, great, another thing for me to suck at._

The bell rang again, this time I was glad that it did. I didn't think that I could survive another hour of math. But right as I was about to get out of the math room, someone tapped me on my back. I pivoted ninety degrees to the right and saw the girl who smiled at me before. With her was another girl. They both had the same shade of hair, looking very silky. Their faces were somewhat pale, but not as much as mine. I also noticed that one was wearing glasses and the other wasn't. One's face was oval-ish and the other's was somewhat round and oval. In the middle. I had to admit, they both had beautiful faces.

"Hi. I'm Kristen." The one who had smiled at me before spoke. Her voice was pretty and had a light tone to it. "And this is Beatrice." Kristen pointed to Beatrice. I liked their names. The name Beatrice was pretty unique.

"Hi." Beatrice waved. I had a feeling that she was also pretty shy, like me. I waved back.

"Hi. I'm... Annabel." I struggled to get the words out.

"Hey, so, are you new here?" Kristen asked.

"Yeah, I came from Forks, Washington." I replied.

"Oh my gosh! That's where Twilight took place!" She sounded happy. Wow. _She'd also read the Twilight Series? That's going to convenient. _

"You've read the Twilight Series?" I asked Kristen, curiously.

She just nodded. Beatrice spoke this time.

"We really like Twilight. Stephenie Meyer is amazing!" She spoke. Her voice also had a light tone and was somewhat soothing.

"Oh, that's great! I love that series! I know! What would we do without her?" I began to feel like I should shut up. I didn't want them to think that I was too obsessed... Which I was, but obsession didn't even begin to cover how I felt about Twilight.

"So... What class do you have next?" Beatrice spoke, again. I had the feeling that these two would be my friends... For the first time I would have friends. Plural form of friend. _What's wrong with me? How am I different from before?_ I wondered.

"Um, I have..." I had to look at my schedule, again. I forgot which class I had next. "P.E. ... With Mr. Campton."

"Oh, well, we don't have that. But, good luck! I hope you have a good day... And wait, before we go, when do you have lunch?" Kristen asked.

I looked down at my schedule again. "I have lunch fifth period. You?"

"Same here! Great, we can eat lunch together! See you then! Bye!" Beatrice and Kristen went out the door. They were so nice. Probably the nicest people I had met in my life.

I followed them out and set out to my personal hell. P.E. This was going to be absolutely fantastic. I got to my class easily and found out that we were going to start with basketball. How lovely was that? But our teacher didn't finish his lecture so we still had a day or two to sit down and listen to him talk. It wasn't that bad. At least I didn't have any equipment in my hands that I could hurt people with.

After P.E. I headed over to science. It was pretty boring but I saw Beatrice there... With this girl named Heidi. She was hilarious. So I sat with them in science. The teacher droned on and on about her policies so I just doodled in my notebook, completely oblivious to what was going on in the class.

The bell rang, again, and class ended.

"Hey, Annabel, right?" Heidi asked. Her voice was a pretty high, but probably not as high as mine. She seemed really friendly.

"Yep. That's me." I replied.

"Okay, good. I was just making sure, you know."

I laughed. I loved Heidi already. I still couldn't believe that I actually am... Making friends. That had to be a first.

"I know just what you mean. What do you have next?" I asked. Maybe I would have another class with her.

"I have Spanish. What do you have?"

"I..." Shoot, do I have short term memory loss or something? I looked down at my schedule and frowned. "Ugh, I have social studies." I moaned. I hated social studies!

"Well, it's okay." She patted my head. "It'll be fine. We'll see each other at lunch, okay? Bye!"

"Bye!" I waved and headed to my next class.

When I walked into the room of my social studies class, paper airplanes, paper balls, and pencils were flying everywhere. Using my binder as a shield, I put it up beside my face and sat away from the crowd. I took out my notebook, again, and started doodling. I'd made a few trees and a couple of eyes when the teacher spoke out loud. I looked around and saw nothing much had changed except everything was clean now.

I looked at everybody's face, trying to memorize it. That was when I saw this boy staring back at me. He was smiling so I smiled back. His smile was so beautiful that I broke into a grin. I couldn't look away from his face, but then his friend tapped him on the back and started talking to him. For the first time, I realized, a boy actually ever gazed at me and he actually smiled. _I wonder what's wrong with me? Did something change about me?_ I touched my face to make sure I didn't change. _Nope, nothing did. Hm, this was confusing._

"Hello, class. How is the first day of school going?" Our teacher spoke. Everybody just nodded and remained silent.

"Okay... So let's take role." He began going down the list, calling out everybody's name. I realized that the guy, who had smiled at me, his name was Mason. I liked that name. Just then the teacher called my name.

"Annabel Whitman?" He looked around the room.

"That's me. I am here." I replied. _Gosh, what the heck? I'm here?_ I shook my head and cleared the negative thoughts.

"Ah, hello, there. You're new to this school, right?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well then, welcome to Arizona High School. I hope you have a great time in this school."

"Er... Thanks." I stammered and then I could feel my ears burning. I touched my face and knew why... I was blushing._ Why won't this ever stop?!_ I looked to my right again and saw Mason smiling at me. _Jeez, he was so cute! _I smiled a little and went back to my doodling, hoping that my teacher had stopped asking me questions. Sneakily, I looked up and saw that he had turned his back to us and was writing something on the board. _Phew. I was saved._ _Then after this, I have lunch with my friends and everything will be fine._ I kept repeating that statement in my head.

The bell finally rang, it seemed like this class was the longest... I wonder why that was. _Was it because Mason was there and I wanted to talk to him? Or because of some other reason that I didn't know?_ I chose to let myself wonder about that as I got up and went out the door. Right then, Mason was in front of me. _Where did he come from?_ I felt myself blushing again.

"Hi. I'm Mason." He said. His voice was charming. And his eyes were so pretty, blue with a touch of green in them, that I thought I could see miles and miles through them.

"Hi. I'm... Um... Annabel." I said lamely and I realized that I said that a beat late. _I wonder if he thinks I'm mental..._

"Sorry about this question... But do you have a dollar?" He asked hopefully.

"Sorry, no. I don't." I responded truthfully.

"Oh, it's fine. I just need it for lunch."

"Um, sorry. None. Well, I have to go. See you." I said quickly.

"Yeah, see ya around." I ran back to my locker, half-lost in the thoughts of him. I opened my locker dreamily and hummed a tune. I replaced my notebooks with other binders for new subjects. I was almost done when all of my friends showed up.

"Hey, how did your classes go?" Kristen asked.

"Great. So where are we eating lunch?" I scanned the student center, where my locker was, which was pretty crowded, and then looked back at my friends.

"How about outside?" Beatrice asked.

"Sure." I hate the sun.

We walked out together, the sun still glowing in the sky, and sat on the cool grass. At least the grass was cool, I was content with that.

"So... Annabel... Seen any cute guys?" Kristen asked. Beatrice and Heidi scooted forward to listen.

Just when I was about to tell them, two other girls came and joined our group.

"Hey Shawna and Audra!" Beatrice waved.

They waved back and looked at me.

"This is Annabel. Annabel, this is Shawna... And this is Audra." Kristen pointed them out for me.

"Hey guys." I squeaked. I cleared my throat.

"Hi." They both said silently.

"Okay, let's eat, then!" And we all dug into our food. It was clear that everyone was starving, looking at the way how they were eating. They weren't eating like they were savages, but it looked graceful. I took my lunch out, Nutella inside the bread, and started munching on it.

"About the guy, who do you like... Or you haven't seen any cute ones yet?" Beatrice began this time.

"Um, well... There's this guy..." I trailed off.

"Hey guys." I looked back and saw a girl with blonde hair and pale features came to us. She looked really pretty, like everyone else in my friend group.

"Hi Giselle." Everyone said at once.

She sat down on the ground with us. The guy automatically sat down with us, too. This guy had brownish hair, with brown eyes.

"Giselle, this is Annabel. Annabel, this is Giselle. And, this is Jake." Beatrice introduced us to each other. I really hating introducing myself so I was glad that Beatrice did it for me.

"Hey Annabel." Giselle said.

"Hi." I replied back.

"Guess what, Giselle? Annabel really likes Twilight, too!" Heidi spoke. I told Heidi how I really liked Twilight and asked her if she'd read it. Apparently she had, but she wasn't as obsessed with it as I was.

"You do?!" Giselle looked at me. It seemed like her eyes were glowing with excitement.

"Yep and I'm obsessed with Edward... He's all mine!" I laughed at the way I sounded. Giselle laughed too and shook her head.

"No way. Edward is mine. No way you can have him." Giselle insisted.

"You can say whatever you want! But he's mine. Also, you're blonde and I'm brunette, therefore, I win." I declared, grinning at my victory.

"You're wrong. We'll talk about this later. But, you're obsessed with Twilight?"

"Yeah! I am! I love it!" And that started me to squeal. Giselle joined in and we were both bouncing up and down in our places.

"Yay! I'm so glad I finally found someone that actually is obsessed with Twilight as much as I am!" Giselle squealed again. Giselle was such a nice person, a person who you could get along with easily. She moved to my side and hugged me. I hugged her back. She is so nice! I couldn't believe someone so nice could exist! Especially who loves Twilight as much as I do."

"Me, too!" I squealed back in response.

"Okay, enough about Twilight... We could talk about it later. What were you guys talking about before I was here?" She asked curiously.

"About who Annabel likes!" Heidi exclaimed. She seemed extra happy to know who. I smiled. I didn't even know if he likes me. Probably not.

"Well..." I began slowly. "There's this guy who's in my geography class and he's really cute! And he was like staring at me and smiling at me. And and... He asked me for a dollar!" I ended happily.

"What's his name?" Shawna asked.

"Mason." I spoke too quickly.

"Nice name." Everybody commented.

"I know!" I squealed. I was squealing way too much today. Maybe it was the sun that had changed me.

We were quiet for a while, listening to each other eat, the wind that started to blow whistle in our ears. I pulled a grass out of the ground and stripped it in half, then another half, then another, till it couldn't be stripped more. Then I put my hands over the grass, swaying it from right to left and left to right. Being bored with that, I laid on the grass and covered my face with my hands to block the sun. I heard other's doing the same thing and sighed. _Today really wasn't that bad of a day... I hope that I didn't just jinx that. _

Lunch was soon over, which I thought was _too soon_. But then again, I ate really slowly and I would take forever to finish my food. I'd said my goodbyes to my friends, telling them to meet me by my locker and leave him after that. All of them were extremely nice and I especially liked that everyone really liked Twilight. If we didn't have anything to talk about... We could talk about Twilight... But then everyone would roll their eyes at me, except for Giselle. I loved Giselle! She was the only one who understood why I was obsessed with Twilight, more than anyone else.

I got to my next class... LA. Our teacher assigned us seats and gave us sheets of papers with letters for us on them. A few of them were about how the teacher was a really hard grader so we better watch out. Others merely talked about to turn your homework in time and not slack off. That's when I noticed my surroundings... All the seats were filled up and I caught my eye on my person... Mason! He was in this class, too? I shrugged, I guess I was lucky.

The teacher, unlike other teachers, straight went into the lecture for grammar. I immediately liked my LA teacher. At least he didn't make me come in front of the room and give a dumb speech. While the teacher talked, I choose to try and tune him out and look around. I'd already learned what he was teaching so I let myself actually look at Mason. His deep, green, amazing eyes. His brunette hair, which was always covered with a black cap, except a few times he took it off. The way he was dressed: a bright green shirt with random things written on it and black jeans. His face bent down, scrutinizing something he was looking at. His white skin... Which reminded me of Edward. But no one could ever take the place of Edward.

I sighed and put looked back at the teacher, hoping to not look back up and Mason. But I couldn't do that for long, I couldn't concentrate with Mason in the room. Sneakily, I moved my hair out of the way, and peeked from the side of my eye at Mason. But when I looked, he was talking to this other girl behind him. I grumbled. _Perfect, school JUST STARTED and I already had my hopes up. What's wrong with me?! Can't I just concentrate on my studies?_

Class ended and I grabbed my bag a headed to my next class. But as soon as I was out the door from my english classroom, Mason was there, in front of me, with a smile playing on his lips.

"Hey, I know that I asked you this before... But, can you please tell me if you have dollar? I really need it." He pleaded.

"I'm sorry. I'll bring a dollar tomorrow, okay?" _If I had a dollar somewhere in my jeans at home..._

"Thanks." With that saying, he walked away. _What a jerk... Okay no he wasn't a jerk - maybe he was and I'm just a pathetic person who can't agree to that term... For now - , but is that some way to ask a girl to give him a dollar and not even say goodbye?_ I kept thinking about him till I got to my next class. Maybe I wouldn't bring a dollar tomorrow. We'll have to see... I was still undecided.

Spanish class was next. I hoped that Mason wasn't in that class, I don't think I wanted to face him, again, for some weird reason. The teacher had assigned us seats and everyone sat down. A girl sat on the left of me and she looked Korean. She saw me looking at her and smiled.

"Hi, I'm Naomi. You're new here, right?" She asked. Her voice didn't sound mocking, unlike other people that I'd met earlier.

"Yep, I'm new. By the way, I'm Annabel."

"Well, then, welcome to Arizona. Do you like it here? And... I'm Naomi." She sounded like she really cared.

"Uh, well... Yeah. Sure." I stammered. _I better go with the lie_, I thought. But since I'm horrible at lying, she saw right through me.

She laughed. "You'll like it here, I promise. Just a few more days and you'll be really comfortable here." I didn't know what she was talking about, so I just nodded, which gave her my approval of going on. "Well, the sun will still be there... As always. Just keep hope that it'll rain." She wanted it to rain?

"I know what you're thinking. How would I, who lived in Phoenix, Arizona, like the cold?" The question that she asked was clearly a rhetorical question but I answered anyways.

"Um, you came from some place else?" I just guessed. It seemed more reasonable that way.

"Mhm. I came here all the way from Minnesota. It's very cold there and that's why I love the cold." Her eyebrows moved down, showing that she was extremely sad. "Anyways, enough about me, how's your life? Seen any cute guys?" _What was it with these girls? Was it always about the boys?_

"Nope." I said this lie confidently. For some odd reason, I didn't want to tell her about Mason.

"Oh... Too bad. It's okay, though. You'll find one, soon. Are you allowed to have boyfriends? Are you allowed to date?" Why was she asking me these questions?

"Um, both yes." I kept my answer short and stared straight ahead at the teacher.

"Nice." She sighed.

"What, you're not allowed any of this?" I asked, astonished.

"No..." She shook her and let out another sigh. I listened, astounded by her reply.

"I'm sorry." I did feel sorry for her... Even though I had enough things in my life for me to be sorry for.

She laughed. "I know. Thanks, though." She turned her head towards the teacher and started writing notes for the speech that our teacher was giving. I guess Naomi didn't want to talk about this anymore. It's okay. She doesn't have to talk about it if she doesn't want to. I stopped thinking about this, too, and actually listened, for the first time, to the teacher.

It seemed like this class would never end. But it did. And when it did, I let out a sigh of relief. Last period of the day... I didn't have anything. I could have gone home and start to do my homework, but I still want to look at more of the school. It was a lot bigger than my old one, and more things were going on here. I went to my locker, again, and put my backpack in the locker. Then I set out to look at the school. I knew I looked weird wandering around in the hallways... But whatever. People didn't like me in my old high school... Who cares now?

I went in most of the hallways, the ones which I had classes in, but then I got bored. Maybe it was a bad idea to do it, but I had a better idea of the school, now. As I was going to my locker, to get my backpack, I stopped short on my tracks. Bright green shirt, black jeans... _Oh no... It is him. _I ran behind a pillar, feeling stupid. _Why was I hiding from him?_ I didn't get it myself. I peeked behind the pillar and saw him talking to a girl. She shook her head and left. _Must be asking for a dollar_, I chuckled.

I looked one last look at him and left to go home. The whole way I was going to my house, I was smiling. Mason made me happy. He made me feel like I actually existed. My smile grew into a wide grin to the possibilities of what was happening to me.

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**Like it? Love it? Hate? So-so? Please review and tell me! :) I'd love to hear from you guys! Until next time, then... :)**


	3. What’sWrongWithMe? WhyCan'tILetHimGo?

** Chapter 3 - What's wrong with me? Why can't I let him go?**:

Even when I got home, a smile was still playing on my lips. My mom turned to look at me looked at me quizzically.

"How was school?" My mom asked conversationally.

"Oh... Fine. Nothing much. I made some friends." I took an orange juice carton box out while I talked.

"Good, good. What do you want to eat right now?"

"Um, I'm pretty much full... So, nothing. I'll go start on my homework. Oh, and how's Dad's new job?" That was the whole reason why we moved here. My Dad's job was in jeopardy so we moved because he got a new job. A better one.

"It's good. He's much more comfortable here than he ever was." I just nodded and headed up to my room.

The walls of my room were covered with a bright yellow color, the color of sunshine, how ironic. My bed was set against the wall, so that my head would be facing the bedroom window. Near my bed, on a wide wooden desk, was a computer. _My _computer. I got a computer! _Whoa, since when did I have my _own _computer?_ I thought. My eyes scanned my room again, _I should put some more books in here. _Even though my bookshelf was already filled with lots and lots of books, that I brought from Forks, I needed more books. Most of all, I needed to buy the Twilight Series, again. My book's bindings were dead, and I don't know how that could have happened because I was very protective of my Twilight books. _No worries, _I told myself, this weekend, I shall buy these books. It was a few minutes till I realized that this room was obviously much bigger than my old one and I got to have my own bathroom! I ran to my bathroom. I knew that I was being stupid, and being happy about a bathroom... But I was bouncing with joy while I washed my hands and dried them with a towel. When I got back, I started on my homework.

I had almost finished all of my homework before my mom called me to dinner.

I bounded down the stairs and skidded to a stop when I got to the kitchen. My Dad was right in front of me and I bumped into him. I rubbed my nose and moaned. _I was such a klutz! _My Dad held me by my arms, to balance me.

"Sorry." I squeaked.

He laughed, knowing that I got my amazing balance from him. "It's fine. So how was school?"

"Fine." I went over and got plates and spoons out of the dishwasher.

"That's good." He silently went to the dining table and sat down for dinner. "What's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti." My mom and I both said the word at the same time. We looked at each other and started laughing, and soon my Dad joined in.

We ate dinner in silence, me finishing late because I'm really slow at eating. For some reason, people always finished eating ten to fifteen minutes before me. It got embarrassing, but I don't think that I'd increased my speed over time. After dinner, I got back up to my room and finished my homework. Soon after, I went to bed, wanting to wake up early for the next day of school. But I couldn't go to bed because of Mason. His face kept on flashing in my mind every time I closed my eyes. _Sleeping was harder than I thought it would be here,_ I muttered. After some tosses and turns, I finally fell asleep.

The sun woke me up bright and early the next day. I was ready before my parents were even awake. Wow. That had to be a first. I was never early... Must be the nerves. All the way to my car I was bouncing with joy to see Mason. I didn't know what had overcome me. _Why was I excited to see him? Why?_ All the way to school, I kept asking that question to myself, but none came to me.

I greeted my friends by my locker and squealed. I told them all about Mason and what happened, they listened intently, their eyes widening about him asking me. After I was done, I said my goodbyes and went to my first period class: math. This class seemed to drone on and on.

Next class started, then the next, then I had social studies. Inside of me, I was bursting with joy and anxious to see him again. His smile, his... Features. Everything about him invited me to him. It felt like Twilight: Bella and Edward. How Bella was totally anxious to see Edward, I had that same exact feeling. I now knew that Twilight had even more real-life experiences than I'd ever thought of. The love you felt towards someone, the complexity you felt towards that person... I hadn't noticed that I was already sitting down at my seat and that I was dreaming till the teacher called on me.

"Annabel? Are you here?" The teacher looked around. _Yeesh, what was the freaking problem with this teacher? Can't he look around to find me? It seemed like he had neck problems or something._

"Yep. I'm here." I said, without squeaking this time. I looked down at my desk and then looked up to see Mason. His head was resting in his hand, and the direction of his face in my direction. He just kept looking at me, not smiling, and neither made weird faces. He just was... Looking at me. I looked back at him, too, but then I felt myself blush and had to look down. _He looked at me, he looked at me, _I gloated to myself again and again.

The day went by in the same way yesterday had gone. The next few weeks, he kept on looking at me, every day different things happened... Which had me confused. But, the confusion didn't last for long. One day, when I was at my locker, we were talking about Mason, as usual, and one of my friend asked me if she could go up to him and ask him about me. I said sure, knowing that she probably knew that I was definitely kidding. But, she went up to him and asked. As soon as she went up to him, I ran and went behind a pole, blushing. My other friends had easily followed me and caught up to me. After a few minutes or so, my friend came to tell me what she had asked Mason.

"What happened?!" I screeched.

"Um... Well, first of all, I would like to say I'm really sorry..." She started. _Uh-oh. This doesn't sound so good of a beginning._ "He said he already has a girlfriend and that he was going out with her. And I'm like but Annabel is cute and he's like... Yeah." I felt myself flame, even though that was impossible. _He... Already has a girlfriend... He didn't like me... _I had never felt so rejected in my life before. I felt empty, feeling nothing except the numb surroundings by me. Before I even knew it, I was walking away from my friends.

"Annabel! Wait up." My friends said. I stopped and waited for them to catch up. When they did, I started walking again, I didn't know where I was going, so I kept on walking. _I didn't know why that hurt me so much, I knew that he had a girlfriend or something from the beginning, why was I hoping? _I felt a tug on my shirt and turned around to see my friends saying something to me.

"Do you want ice-cream? Will it make you feel better?" They said.

_Why were they feeling sorry for me? Didn't they know that he and I were never meant to be together? _Whenever they said 'sorry', I felt a stab in my heart, so I tried telling them that I'm perfectly fine **if and only if they weren't feeling sorry for me.** Of course, they didn't listen, but I ignored them. I was only going to concentrate on my studies and nothing else. My friends had bought ice-cream for themselves and we were leaving to go to our next class. But right then, I saw Mason, and he saw me. He quickly turned around from where he came from and went back the other way. _Aw, no! Don't go! I still love you... Wait, I loved him? What?! ... He went the other way! It's all awkward now! No, no, no, no, no, no!_

"Guys, did you see Mason? He was like right there!" I asked.

"Yeah... I did." Shawna said.

"Ugh, it's all awkward _NOW_..." I moaned.

"Well, get on to crush number two!" Heidi said. I rolled my eyes at her, and then my eyebrows shot up at the possibilities of that and then grimaced.

"Sure, sure... Like _that could happen_." I heard sarcasm color my voice. "And anyways, I don't have a second crush. I still really, really like him." _Something was seriously wrong with me. He had a girlfriend and I still liked him? I was pretty positive that something was wrong with me. If he liked me, which he probably didn't from now, and he had a girlfriend... Then that would be cheating. Ugh, stupid life._

"People, we are late." Heidi said at last, breaking my from my reverie, and emphasizing on the 't' in the word late.

We all laughed and started going in the direction of our classes. I said goodbyes to my friends half-heartedly and headed to spanish. My mind was still spinning in circles at the possibility of Mason having a girlfriend. He couldn't. Just... Couldn't.

The day went by in a blur, but not as fast as before. My thoughts were still surrounding Mason; whenever I thought about him, it hurt so bad in that I felt like I had a hole in my heart. I went to my car, and turned the air conditioning on. The rush of air flew my hair around my face, allowing me to only see through the dark curtains of my hair. I sighed and moved my hair back, pulling up the car in reverse drive and drove home. This time, all the way to my house, I was fighting to keep my tears under control.

"Hey sweety." My mom said as I walked past her.

"Hi." I mumbled. "Um, I'm going to do homework. I have tons to do today." I lied and ran up to my room. But when I got inside inside my room, I shut my door close and lost it. I sat down on the ground finally let myself cry. Tears streamed down my face and I let myself cry. It seemed like I would never stop, but I did. Homework, studying... I had everything left to do, there was no point in crying. I wiped my tears with the sleeve of my shirt and got up to do my homework. _I was going to forget about Mason and just... Pretend that he doesn't exist. Right, now get to work, _I ordered myself.

After homework and dinner, I went to bed early that night, yet I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the next day... What would happen in social studies? What about LA? I couldn't sleep so I got up and went to sit and read Twilight for a while. Twilight always calmed me down; but I couldn't choose which Twilight Saga series to read... Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn? I loved all these books... I gave up, not wanting to make a drastic choice and lied down on the bed. I had counted to 4756 sheeps when I finally drifted off to sleep.


	4. Whatever Life sucks anyway

**A/N: Another chapter! : ) Cuz I was bored and I had nothing else to do. **

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** Chapter 4 - Whatever. Life sucks anyway**:

_I was outside my social studies class, I was pretty sure, heading in the direction of my locker. The hallways, which were usually brightly lit, were now pitch black. I couldn't seem to find where I was headed, except touching lightly on the wall. My hands touched around, wanting to find something, a way to get out of here, but found nothing. Then, suddenly, I bumped into something... Or someone. I felt my hands move onto the body, feeling a different texture, somewhat smoother than the wall, making sure if it was a body. Right when I was about to ask who it was, or where is everyone, someone's lips came crushing onto mine. This kiss terrified me. Who was kissing me? Why the _hell_ was that person kissing me? I felt the person's hand move into my hair, knotting my hair in between their fingers. Right now, I was pretty sure that a guy was kissing me, which was a first. I'd never been kissed by a guy before. Ever. Except for my Dad, but that was just a peck on my cheek; this was totally different. His lips were moving in ways I couldn't understand, the warmth from his mouth filled inside me, and I felt my breath coming out shallow. I tried to pull away, afraid of what would happen next, but somehow, his hands suddenly dropped from my hair and held my wrists. He restrained me from moving even a centimeter. So I stopped trying,_ maybe if I didn't do anything else, he would stop, _I thought. Eventually, he moved his lips from mine, but only to move onto my eyelids, the tip of my nose, and then my lips again. They were brushing from left to right on my lips, now. Then I felt him pull himself away from me, but still holding my wrists with his hands, resisting me to run away. All of sudden, the lights in the hallways were lit brightly. That was when I saw who was kissing me. I gazed into his deep blue eyes, with a touch of green in them, and seeing miles and miles into them. I finally realized who was kissing me. Mason._

I woke up, my shirt sticking to my back, drenched in sweat, and my eyes were filled with tears. Tears started streaming down my face again, but I wiped them with the sleeve of my shirt. I shot a glance at the clock, _5:15, _I still had about half an hour before I'm supposed to wake up. I knew I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and made my bed; something that I never did. I sat for a few minutes and decided to go and brush my teeth and take a shower. The water was bound to help me calm down; I needed the splashing of the water to hit my body.

After the constant _thump_ing of the water for about half an hour, I stopped the shower and got out. The mist swirled around my body, almost clinging to it. I wrapped my towel around my body, trying to keep the mist still with me. Finishing with that, I went back to my room and picked a book from my shelf to read. I choose _The Host_, I loved that book. Of course one of the reasons why I liked it was because it was by Stephenie Meyer, but I liked it also because of the confusion and the complexity, which was going on between the characters. Also, the confusion and complexity was involved in romance, which I absolutely loved.

I kept reading till it was time to go. I glanced at the clock, but I still had fifteen minutes before class started. Still, I didn't want to risk arriving late to my first period class. I hoisted my backpack up and slung it over my shoulders.

I got in my car, which was filled with the scent of something burning. Ignoring it the best I could, I thought about how to face Mason. Should I just ignore him completely? Or talk to him? Or just be normal and forget everything that happened between us, which wasn't much, but it seemed like it was. _What should I do? _I asked myself, frustrated by the fact that I had no choice but to ignore him. Fine, if I had to ignore to... Ignore him... Wait, that didn't make sense... _Crap, I'm totaled. I don't know what I should do! _

By the time I got to school, I realized that the whole parking lot was filled, except for a few spots that were the farthest away from the school. I quickly got out of my car and ran. As soon as I got close enough to the school, where people could actually see a maniac running, I slowed down to a walk. That was when I thought that I would just forget about Mason, and completely ignore him. I knew it wasn't going to be easy said easy done, but I was going to try my hardest.

Time passed by even rapidly than ever, probably because I didn't want to see Mason, because I knew I couldn't keep my promise to myself. I just wasn't strong enough. He makes me feel blissful, ecstatic, like I could float forever... I couldn't just forget about him... Still, I knew that if I would ever get over Mason, I would have to forget about him.

I deliberately got to my social studies class early, and I was happy to see that the classroom was deserted. No one was there, which meant nobody was going to bother me, I could just sit with my friend. After a few minutes or so, people started appearing, filing up the classroom. My friend sat two seats ahead of me, which surprised me... _Why wasn't she sitting back here with me?_ I went up to sit beside her, not caring if I was sitting pretty close to the person I didn't really like. But my chair was really crappy, so I decided to change it. That was when Mason walked right past me, to the back seat, and came back up, to talk to his friend. _Shoot, he HAD TO COME RIGHT NOW?! _I groaned, kicking myself internally when I had to chance to not come across his path. I ignored him the best I could but, the klutz I was, the leg of the desk hit Mason's foot, and he looked up at me. I kicked myself internally again. _Why did I have to be such a klutz? This was going to make this a lot harder for me... To ignore him. _

I looked up to see Mason's gaze on mine, and I quickly pulled up the desk and put it behind me. _Screw the crappy desk_. He was still staring at me, so I quickly spoke.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see your... Foot." I squeaked lamely.

He didn't say anything but he continued to look at me. _What the hell is wrong with him?! Can't he just answer and get this embarrassing moment over with!? _After a moment, he spoke.

"Yeah, you better be sorry." And then he laughed. _What does that mean?_ I gulped, scared of what might happen next, and moved to sit behind my friend this time. I felt my cheeks burn almost instantly, and put hands on the desk and then rested my head on my arm. I then heard my friend's desk scoot closer to where Mason was sitting, which was two seats diagonally away from me.

"Are you going out with someone, Mason?" I overheard my friend saying.

"Yeah." His reply was short, curt.

"With... Sarah?" She asked curiously. _Why was she asking these questions?! Wait, did she like him, too?_

"Yeah! Like everyone knows that." _Guess not everyone_, I thought sadly. I raised my head and looked at my friend, raising one eyebrow.

She came over to me and whispered lightly in my ear. "The girl he's going out with is the most annoying and stupidest person!"

"Really?!" I said a bit too loudly.

"Shhhhhhhh... Yeah, she's really annoying." The teacher started with the lecture before I could ask about anything else. But why was I inquisitive about Mason's love life? I'd promised myself that I would forget about him, but how could I do that if he was everywhere I was? Well, not in the sense him being with me every minute of my life, but still, close enough.

The bell rang, finally, the class seemed to drag on forever, and I ran out before I could run into Mason again. I met up with my friends by my locker and the day droned on without anything happening. Even though I had promised myself that I would stop liking Mason, I just couldn't do it. He was everywhere I looked, what could I have done? Okay, yeah I could have just ignored him and not look at him, but still I couldn't resist to just not look at him.

In English, it was absolutely terrible because the teacher called on me and I didn't have the right answer, which meant that I obviously blushed. I hated this. _Why was I being distracted? Oh yeah, because of stupid, stupid, Mason. _But on the plus side, he did talk to me in class, mostly about our grades, nothing really about us. I guess he forgot all about yesterday, which was good but I figured that I didn't get over it yet. _Oh, well. _

Weeks passed by quickly and Mason and I became pretty good friends, in my opinion. We talked in class, but not really outside of it. I had made a myspace and a facebook account, which was a lot of fun. Giselle and I were having a blast writing things about Twilight; I loved it! It gave me something to look forward to, rather than sit around and think about Mason. And then on myspace, Mason and I talked a lot on there.

Homecoming was in a week and I didn't think that I would go because of many reasons. Actually I was pretty positive that I wasn't going, even though all of my friends were. As the days grew closer, they started talking about it a lot more. With it, they asked me about outfits and what to wear... In fact, we decided that we'll go shopping together, except I wasn't going to buy anything. I promised myself that I'll try and not be a party pooper and give constructive criticism on the types of dresses they'll choose. We decided to go the day before homecoming, and shop like crazy!

Then one day, it was a Monday, I'm pretty sure... In English, Mason and I talked a lot more than usual. Well not really, but I guess you could call it that, but it made me feel somehow more hopeful of Mason... For one thing, I heard that he broke up with his girlfriend... And I made it sure that it was really real because I saw on his myspace information section, it said that he's single. And secondly, maybe he would go out with me, which definitely wasn't going to happen. But, I still hoped, internally kicking myself for liking him so much. In fact, liking wouldn't even begin to cover of how I felt towards Mason; the same way I felt about Twilight.

I sat in my usual seat, still giggling from the great time we had in lunch, and pulled my hair up in a sloppy pony tail. I looked in the direction where Mason usually sat, but he wasn't there. My giggling stopped almost instantly and my eyes scanned the room as fast as they could move. I still didn't see him, but then I felt someone's hand brush against my own. I glanced up and saw Mason moving to sit by _me_! Of all the places he could sit by, he sat by me! My heart started pounding really fast; I really hoped that nobody could hear it. But when he sat by me, he was at least five to six inches away from me and I had the urge to touch his hand, to feel the way his skin feels. I felt just how Bella did, when she was sitting right beside Edward, and she felt as if there was an electric current flowing through her to Edward. I felt precisely like that. What makes it even more ironic is that we were going to watch a movie and Bella and Edward were also watching a movie...

I shook my head, this was way too weird. Then, to pretend like I'm doing something, I take my hairband off of my wrist and play around with it. I twisted and turned it into different directions, not knowing how to do anything "cool" with it. In the middle of trying to at least do something with the hairband, I heard someone mutter. I looked to my right, and to my suspicion I was correct. Mason.

"Is something wrong?" I asked meekly.

"Here, let me show you how to do it." He rolled his eyes while he said this. _What was there to roll his eyes at? I mean, I know that I didn't do it right... At least I _thought_ that I did it right. Was I doing it right?... We'll see... _I quickly handed the hairband over to him, my fingers tingled with new warmth when our hands touched.

He was really, really, really, amazing at it. His fingers somehow did this odd little trick which I couldn't believe that someone could actually do it. I stared at his hands doing the trick and then look up into his eyes, which were gazing back in my own. I tore my eyes away and looked back down, my cheeks burning.

"There. You try it." He said softly.

I looked up to see if he was kidding. But he wasn't. I raised one eyebrow and shook my head. I couldn't do this, all I would do is just embarrass myself in front of him. He motioned for me to do it, so I finally agreed. I took the now-dangerous hairband and tried to put my fingers through like he did. All that happened was it fell down on the floor lightly, and I thought about not doing it again. I heard Mason laugh, and I growled quietly at him. But as soon as I was about to put the hairband back in it's place, on my hand, Mason's hand touched mine.

"I'll show you how to do it." He said quietly, so that no one could hear except for me. His hands gently touched mine, trying to put my long, skinny, fingers through the places he wanted them to be in. I thought we tried this five time, I thought that - I lost count because I was too preoccupied looking at him - before I gave up.

Once again, I was bored, so I just started drawing on the back of my friend, Daphnee, who sat right in front of me, and started to make her guess the letters I was drawing. Mason helped me with the ones that she didn't get and I was fine with that. Not really, still, I controlled myself and made myself be fine with it. I then moved on to Mason, hoping if he would let him draw on his back. Thankfully, he let me, and I was euphoric with excitement. I drew with my pencil - even though I wanted to do it with my hands. I just randomly wrote stuff - stuff that was not really interesting. But the last word that I wrote was his name. M - A - S - O - N. He said his name when I was at the "O" and I commented him with a compliment.

"Good job, Mason." His name sent shivers down my spine for some reason. "You know your name!" I smiled as convincingly as I could. He smiled his heart-breaking smile and spoke.

"Can I do it to you, now?" He asked, cautiously.

"Um... Sure?" I didn't want to make my answer into a question, it just happened. I turned around, so that my back was facing him and closed my eyes. This was heavenly. The guy who I really really liked, possibly even loved was touching me! I tried to keep my mouth shut and concentrated on the pen that scrawled across my back. His hands moved slowly and delicately. The first word he wrote was hey, then hi... I guess it went on for only three to four minutes, but it seemed like it was only for a minute or so. Then we stopped because the teacher's eye suddenly caught mine and I look away brusquely.

All the time in English, I was gloating to myself, Mason touched me, he touched me! Out of no where at all, something poked me at the side and I jumped about a foot in the air. I heard Mason laugh. _Oh, so that's how it's going to be._ I giggled and poked him back. I was surprised that he jumped even higher than I did. My giggles turned into a laughter. For some reason, I was really happy, and very giggle-ish today. I giggled again. _Oh dear, I'm going mad, aren't I?_ And that started me into another laughing fit. That was when I looked around me and saw that everybody was watching me. _Oh lovely._ I stopped abruptly and tried to stifle my giggles. I turned my face toward Mason and he was laughing, too, although he was a lot quieter than I was. I smiled back, then turned my head and looked straight ahead, and tried to ignore everything, except for Mason's face that was vivid in my mind. Maybe hoping wasn't that bad after all. I laughed quietly, this time, to myself. No, it was going to be hard, but I was going to try.

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**Reviiiiewwwwwwwwwww :)**


	5. Me Get asked out You’re joking Notgonna

**A/N: New chappies! Whooooooo!!! :)**

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** Chapter 5 - Me? Get asked out? You're joking! Not going to happen. Ever!**:

Homecoming was arriving soon and we all had to go shopping. Everybody in our school were talking about it. Actually, at the end, I decided that I should go, too, just for the sake of my friends. We decided to go shopping right after school on friday, so that we would have enough time to actually buy our dresses.

The week blew by fast and soon it was thursday. We had all agreed to go shopping tomorrow, friday, and get dresses -- which meant that we had to go right after school. I couldn't wait till tomorrow! Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I thought about dress shopping with my girl friends. This was the first time I was doing it - I felt so carefree and I wanted to fly - for no reason at all. It was already fourth period - my social studies class and I was talking to my friend about homecoming. She wasn't going to homecoming, so she wanted me to tell her everything about it - people who were dancing together, should she go next year?, and how it was going to be. I promised to tell her everything and then felt a light tap on my right shoulder. I looked at the person who had tapped me, and my heart swelled with happiness. Mason. I sighed. My feelings still hadn't changed about him, but we were good friends, now. I had hoped that it would gradually increase from more than a friendship, but right now I wasn't seeing any paths to get to that one path that I wanted.

"Hey Mason." I smiled. "What did you want?" I asked.

"I wanted to ask you something." He said it so low that I strained my ears to hear him. My heart fluttered at the possibility of what he might want to ask me. But I didn't want to hope too much which might hurt me later, so I decided against hoping much. It didn't always work, still I tried.

I waited for him to go on, but he didn't say anything. "What did you want to ask me?" I asked, my voice burning with curiosity.

"Would..." He started to ask when the teacher ordered to class to pay attention and remain silent. The teacher threatened us that he would give us detention if he found anyone talking. I silently scowled at the teacher. Now Mason couldn't finish what he was about to say. I looked at him, with inquisitive eyes, hoping that he would somehow send the message he wanted to send to me, but he just mouthed: _Later_. Great, later. So I had to wait till this fifty minute class had to end. _This would be a very, very, _very_, long class_, I concluded.

To pass my time, I tried to do different things. First I tried doodling, but it didn't last for long because curiosity was too much for me to concentrate on what I wanted to draw. Next I tried writing a story, mostly about Twilight, of course, and some of my real life, but that too didn't last for long, as I had expected. After that, I tried playing with my hair, making it into a sloppy pony or twist it around my finger. But, still I was too anxious to do anything at all. _What had Mason wanted to ask me? ... That made him so hesitant?_

The bell finally rang, and I couldn't be happier. Whatever he wanted to ask me - either good or bad news - I wanted to know. I hoisted my bag up and slung it over my shoulders. I went outside, hoping to find him, but I didn't see him. Then I felt a light tap on my shoulder and I pivoted forty - five degrees. It was Mason. _Where had he magically appeared from?_

"Hi." I said quietly. I had no idea why I was whispering.

"Hey." He replied back.

"So... What was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Would you like to go to homecoming with me?" He asked quickly. I looked up and saw that he was blushing and was bright red, a really pretty contrast to his skin color. It was hard for me to swallow... _Was this really happening? Did Mason - THE GUY I LOVE - just ask me to HOMECOMING? I felt like screaming._

I looked back down when I answered. "Yes." I mumbled, _what else could I have said besides saying "yes"?_ I couldn't keep my voice from squeaking at the end, though. I was literally about to burst with joy right now.

He breathed a sigh of relief. At least, _I_ thought it was a sigh of relief. "Great. So... Um..." I had started to walk in the direction of my locker, so he kept up with me. He probably was walking with me to my locker. I smiled at the thought.

"What...?" I asked. "Sorry, I... Yeah..." I smiled again, at my thought. _This was all a dream, wasn't it?_

"Dinner?"

"Oh, well, uhm, we could go together - with my friend's, if that's okay - to... California Pizza Kitchen?"

He nodded his head. "Sure." We were at my locker now, and I replaced my binders with other ones and took out my lunch. He was looking longingly at my hershey's bar, which made me feel guilty.

"Do you have anything to eat for lunch, today?"

He shook his head. "No."

I sighed. _He didn't have lunch? That made me feel so bad. I had a lot of things to eat, yet he didn't have any? _I took the hershey's bar out and handed it to him. His eyes widened and then brightened up. _Ah. That made my heart feel... Like it melted. My heart just melted! _I chuckled. Heidi would use that phrase.

"Really? For me?" He asked, a smile playing on his lips. Of course it was for him. He asked me TO HOMECOMING - I would do anything for him.

"Yeah." I smiled and looked around. I saw Beatrice, Kristen, Heidi, Shawna, and Audra approaching me. Mason followed my gaze and smiled, too. _Did he want to meet my friends or something?_

"Here, I have to go meet my friends - I'll see you later, okay?" I just nodded and smiled. His smile was dazzling and I felt myself that I couldn't look away from him. His hand gently brushed along my collarbone, and I shivered. He chuckled and walked away from me, still leaving me dazzled. A hand shook my shoulder and I jumped about a foot in the air. We all laughed.

"Why was Mason here?" Shawna asked as soon as our laughs had faded away.

"Um..." I blushed.

"Oooooooooooh!! Annie!! Tell us! Please?!" Heidi asked, almost bouncing up and down.

"Yes, yes, please?" Now Beatrice, Kristen, and Audra were also pleading.

"Oh, fine! Let's go outside and then I'll tell you." I sighed. Everybody almost ran outside, except for me. I was excited to tell them that Mason had asked me to homecoming... But I didn't have the exact details they wanted right now.

"Annieeeee! Hurry up!" Shawna and Heidi ran back up to me and grabbed my hand, almost dragging me to the point I almost fell on my face.

"Calm down, guys!" I said. We were outside, now, and the day was ... I guess, hot. I still didn't like how the weather got this hot, but I was getting used to it.

"Tell!!!!" Everybody said at once.

"Tell you what?" I said innocently. I really didn't want to make a big deal of this.

"Hey guys!" Giselle came to sit by us.

"Giselle!!!" I squealed and hugged her. _Ah, I hadn't talked to her in awhile! I really missed her! _

"Hi!" She screamed and I screamed back, and then we both started bouncing. That was our reunion.

"Giselle, Annabel was about to tell us something important!" Kristen said.

Giselle turned around to face them. _Great, now... Ugh... Our reunion is messed up! Aw! Ughy! _"Really? What were you going to say, Annie?"

"Never mind." I mumbled.

"Oh please, please, please, tell!" Everybody begged, again.

I shook my head frantically. But at the end, they won; I guess I had wanted to tell them, too...

"Okay, so, Mason asked me to homecoming and I said yes!" I squealed, remembering at the greatest memory of my life.

Everybody squealed and hugged me. They all kept on saying: "I'm so happy for you" or "Yay you!" or "Why didn't you want to tell us before?"

I answered that of course I wanted to tell them, but, I don't know, I felt at the same time, I didn't want to.

"I guess we would have to go dress shopping soon, then." I concluded. "I mean, homecoming is... What, in like... TWO DAYS! Ah! Guys! We need to shop... Soon!" I knew I was on the verge of freaking out.

"Calm down, Annie. We're going tomorrow, remember?" Audra asked.

"Oh, yeah..." I slapped my forehead.

"Is Mason taking you to dinner, then?" Beatrice asked.

"Yeah, about that... I kind of invited him to go with us to California Pizza Kitchen... Is that okay?" I tacked the question at the end, not wanting to seem like I was rude.

"Sure... But won't he be the only guy there...?" Giselle asked.

"Um... I guess... I don't know. What should I do?" I asked, desperately.

"You should just go with him, alone, to... Wherever you want, and we can meet you at the dance." Kristen said. Everybody else just nodded their heads.

"But... But... That's not fair. We were supposed to do this together!" I was torn between two choices.

"Well, it's okay. You have a date, now. We can eat dinner together any other time, later, right, guys?" Heidi asked. Everybody's head nodded in agreement.

"But, guys! I don't... I don't wanna seem like I'm ditching on you!" I said.

"You're not. Definitely not. You just go have fun with Mason... But promise to tell us everything, I repeat everything that'll happen there, okay?" Beatrice said, this time.

I rolled my eyes. I did want to go with Mason, alone, but I also wanted to go with my friends. Also, now that everybody thinks that I should go with him _alone_... _Maybe I should?_

"Okay. Agreed." I grinned. I really loved my friends. What would I do without them?

"Right, so, tomorrow, right after school, we're going to the mall, and picking out dresses for each other. Okay?" Giselle asked.

"Yes!" We all said, in agreement. I was so excited for this! Now, all I needed was to tell Mason that we're going alone. I hope he won't mind...

Lunch ended and then it was time for English... I got to English early, hoping to find Mason in the classroom, and lucky for me, he was sitting on his desk, talking to his friend. He looked so cute. I sighed, then strode to my desk, putting my bag there, and went to Mason. _Please, please, please let him be happy with us going alone to dinner_, I said under my breath.

Mason looked up when I walked over to him and grinned. I smiled back, sheepishly, and said in a clear voice.

"Um..." I cleared my throat. His friend suddenly thought that he should go help the teacher out - probably not wanting to hear what I wanted to say - and went away.

"Yes?" He pressed. His face came really close to mine and I could feel his cool, minty fresh breath on my face. I inhaled in the scent and started over.

"Change of plans." I smiled.

"In what?" He asked, suddenly looking glum. _Did he think that I was going to turn him down... Even though I agreed to go with him?_

"Dinner. It turns out that my friends are going to meet me at the dance and so... Is it okay if only two of us go to eat dinner?"

His grin came back, and it was bigger than before. "Of course." He said.

"Ahem." I looked up to see the teacher looking at me, through his glasses. I strode back to my seat and looked at Mason. He was still grinning, but was looking at the teacher now. _Phew! Everything had gone pretty well. Yay. _

Today went by really fast, and soon it was the last period of the day. I had it off, which was good because I really needed to lie down for some reason, but I couldn't do that because I was so vibrant today. I went to my locker and took out the stuff that I needed and then started to close it. But as I was about close it, my books slipped from my fingers on by one. _Crap._ I sighed. Of all the luck I had... I bent down, but to my surprise I saw Mason had already stacked the books in a pile, making it easier for me to hold them.

"Thanks." I said, sweetly.

"No problem." He replied back in the same, soft tone.

I straightened up and looked back at my bag, still on the ground. I went over and put my books in there, then I picked it up from the ground and went back to where Mason was standing.

"How's it going?" He asked, courteously.

"Pretty good... You?" Where was he going with this?

"Well, same here. I wanted to talk to you about something." He began.

"Okaaaaay..." I waited for him to continue.

He inhaled and then spoke. "Since we are going to homecoming together..."

"Yeah..." I said.

"And, well... I was wondering if you would like to go out with me." At the end, it sounded like a question.

That took me by surprise. _Go out? _I smiled. "Sure." I said confidently.

"Okay, so, does going on Sunday work for you? We could go watch a movie or eat dinner or lunch..." He trailed off.

"Whichever is fine with me." I replied back.

"How about movie?" He asked.

"Sure."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then. Stay beautiful." And he walked away. _Whoa, stay beautiful? Who's beautiful here? Definitely not me. Does he really like me? I guess from the way he's been acting... Yeah...? _My heart thumped unevenly. I stumbled my way to the place where I had parked my car and drove home, still feeling twitchy.

As soon as I got home, I ran up to my room and slammed the door shut. Then I walked over to my desk and searched for my iPod. After searching it forever, I finally found it sitting on my shelf. I quickly scrolled down to my favorite song, Disturbia, then put the volume up as high as it could go. Soon enough, I was on my feet, dancing along to the incredible beat of the song. I was mostly jumping up and down, rather than doing dance moves, which made me feel as if I could fly forever. Or 'float' forever, as Heidi would put it. I laughed to myself. When the song was finished, I put another song, a quieter one, and lay down on my bed. As this song came to an end, it faded away slowly.

Then I suddenly came back to reality. Homework. Due. Tomorrow. Shoooooot. I dawdled back to my desk and picked up my homework. The only reason how I could do my homework was by actually thinking about tomorrow. It'll finally be Friday, the day I was waiting for. Well, one of the days that I was waiting for. I couldn't wait to go dress shopping with my friends. Now I could actually get a dress worth looking at.

As the sun rose brightly in the sky, a new morning began. The morning was, for once, a bit chilly, and the wind blew my hair around because I had rolled down my windows. For once, I was happy to go to school, for obvious reasons. One - Mason. Two - SHOPPING! I couldn't wait to go.

The day at school went by in a haze - I had talked to Mason. That was mostly about random stuff. He said that he couldn't wait to see me tomorrow and had called me pretty. I had rolled my eyes at that. Then at lunch my friends and I talked about how much fun it would be to go dress shopping together. We all screamed and bounced up and down and started acting like little kids. _Oh, well. I don't care._

Soon enough, the day ended. I went straight to my house, and hurriedly changed my clothes and put my school stuff in my room. Giselle, Beatrice, Shawna, Audra, Kristen, and Heidi would be here any moment and we couldn't afford to waste any time. We were taking Audra's car - a red jeep. I heard the beep - beep of the honk of the car and grabbed my purse. I slung it around my shoulder and ran out the door.

"Finally!" Heidi said and we all laughed.

"Yay! So is everyone here, now?" Giselle asked, looking around.

"Yep." I answered.

"Okay... Let's go!" Shawna said.

"Okay." Audra said and we drove off.

* * *

**Comments?**


	6. Shopping Time

** Chapter 6 - Shopping time!**:

The trees blew past us, the brightly colored leaves wafted in circles and landed softly on Audra's car. Chatter was all around me, mostly excited voices. Out of all of us, Audra stayed quiet; after all, she was driving. I peered through my window and looked at the sky. Clouds were closing in, outcasted, but the sun still lit brightly across the sky. I sighed. _Oh well, not everything could be perfect_. But I wished, that somehow, miraculously, rain would start falling from the sky, at homecoming. That would be so romantic.

We got to the Paradise Valley Mall in less than twenty minutes, because of Audra's brilliant driving skills. I briskly got out, wanting to see the mall, which I was about to see for the first time in my life. The structure was extremely huge, made with dark red brick walls. As I turned around, to take a better look around the area, I found a beautiful fountain, a sort of welcoming for the visitors. The fountain looked like a water fall, which, I thought, would probably throw iridescent colors at night.

"C'mon, Annie! We have to go or else we won't have enough time to shop." Giselle grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the entrance. I stumbled a little, but Giselle's grip tightened as I felt like I was about to fall. Apparently they all had been here before and didn't want to marvel over the structure or the place where this mall was. Whenever I asked them to stop and let me take pictures, they refused to, telling me that we won't have enough time.

The mall inside was even bigger than I thought it would be. The floors were shiny, probably because they were irradiated from the beaming lights above. My friends took me straight to the juniors section and we soon found a rack of our own to sort through for our dresses.

Heidi found two dresses that she actually liked. "Guys, I'm going to try them on, okay? And then tell me how it looks. Okay?" she said. We all agreed and she scurried away to the ladies fitting rooms.

I sorted through all the clothes, not finding even one which I liked. By the time I looked up, my friends were holding at least a bunch of dresses in their hands. My eyes scanned around the room for Heidi. I found her ambling forward, from behind the tall, beige stalls in the fitting room, and walked toward us. She had her hands behind her back - I guessed that it was her dress. But why was she hiding it, though?

"Guys. Okay. I got my dress." She beamed at us. We looked at her, with a puzzled look. "What?" She asked.

"Where is it?" Shawna asked.

With one sweep movement, she pulled out from behind her a beautiful homecoming dress. We all gasped. It was gorgeous.

"Wear it!" I said. I couldn't wait any longer to see how it would look on her.

"On homecoming." She said. I could tell she wouldn't let me budge her on this.

"Grrrrr." I groaned, then started laughing.

"Wait for the day! It's tomorrow! Be patient" she said calmly. But I can't be patient, I wanted to see the dress on her... RIGHT NOW!

Just when I was about to say something else to Heidi, Giselle came. I could see her eyes glowing and a small smile was playing on her lips. I tore my eyes away from her beautiful face and looked at her dress. She held it up for us to see.

"You guys like it?" She asked, her eyes still glowing.

"Of course!" We all said. The dress was beautiful.

"Okay, so, you guys can all marvel over it later." She chuckled.

"But... But... Why...!!!??" I asked.

"Because, well, just like yours. We won't see your dress until tomorrow, well technically... yeah. And we'll see it at homecoming, now that we're not eating dinner together, remember?" _Oh yeah... I remember... Now. Darn it, now I would have to wait until tomorrow to look at their dresses. _"And..." she added, "we'll see you looking like... Bella!" She exclaimed!

I laughed. My alternate reality _is_ Bella.

Gradually, Beatrice, Kristen, Shawna, and Audra came with their dresses. They each had it folded on their arms. They weren't even going to show me the designs! No! But I saw the color of their dresses, though. Beatrice's dress was blue, Kristen's was blue, too. Yet, it seemed like it had a black curtain on it... I couldn't quite see it. Oh well, I guess that I would have to wait till tomorrow. Beatrice looked like an angel. Audra stood beside Beatrice, and on her hand - just like Beatrice - was her dress. It was bright gold. Again, I couldn't see it enough to actually mesmerize the dress. At last, Shawna came into view. She actually had folded her dress exactly like Beatrice and Audra but she covered it.

"Sorry Annie. I have to. Tomorrow, okay?" Shawna said.

"Why are you guys doing this to me?" I wailed dramatically, just for fun.

Everybody laughed, but didn't answer back. I quickly found the dress that I had wanted, a bright red, which shimmered when the light fell on it. I figured that I wouldn't show them my dress today, either, at least not fully. We can all be dazzled by our dresses tomorrow.

We all moved on to buy our shoes. This didn't take as long as I had expected. Everybody found their shoes quickly and went to pay for the accessories we bought.

As we went to Audra's car, we chattered about the exciting day tomorrow. The chatter soon moved on to Mason... And me. How they'll see us together, would they see us tomorrow, what will Annabel be wearing...

The ride back home was quick, probably because I was lost in my own train of thoughts. "Bye guys!" I yelled back into the car.

"See you tomorrow!" Audra said.

"Can't wait to see you tomorrow!" Giselle squealed and I squealed back in response.

"Yeah, you better be there." Beatrice warned, then laughed.

"Yes, yes!" Heidi agreed.

"I can't wait to see you with Mason!" Kristen smiled.

"Oh, she'll be there. You guys will see." Shawna said and looked at me with a sly glance.

"Of course. You'll see me... Soon!" I laughed and waved goodbye as the car faded away into the twilight night.

I walked slowly up the steps to open our door, and then finally let myself in.

"Hey sweety." My mom said. "What did you guys buy today?"

"Um... Dresses... For homecoming..." I replied back, a beat late than needed.

"Really? Oh, so you have a date?" My mom asked, with curiosity burning her voice.

"Mhm." I mumbled. This was embarrassing - I never did talk about boys and dates with my parents; of course, I didn't have any before... Once again, that lead me to think about my life before I came here. What had changed about me?

"Who is it?" My mom's voice broke through my reverie.

I sighed. She wasn't going to let it go until she had all the answers she wanted. "His name is Mason. I had a crush on him... And surprisingly he likes me back..." I trailed off, my voice coloring with surprise.

"And...?" She prompted.

I smiled. "He asked me to homecoming and I said yes." I replied and turned to go to my room.

"I'm so happy for you, honey."

"Thanks." I mumbled, again. "Oh and I forgot to tell you, I'm going out with him on Sunday night..." I hoped she would say yes.

"Well..." she trailed off, thinking and looking into space. "Sure, but the next day is school so don't come too late. Sound good?"

"It sounds great Mom, I love you." I hugged her and then ran upstairs.

I put my dress and my shoes in my closet and changed my clothes. I was too exhausted to do any of my homework, so I fell asleep almost immediately, dreaming of tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

** Chapter 7 - *Gulps* Homecoming. Mason. Friends. Time to freak out and run away **:

I woke up early the next morning, in order to finish my homework, hoping that I wouldn't have any left to do the next day. Time passed quickly, to my surprise, and it was soon time to dress up for homecoming.

"Honey, here are your maids, they're going to help you to get ready, okay?" My mom asked.

"Sure." I put my books and binders in my bag, and cleaned up till they arrived. It didn't take them long. There were two of them, they were almost the same height with the same color hair, eye color and skin color. I guessed that they were twins, but I didn't ask.

"Hi. I'm Karen and this is my sister Vanessa." Karen pointed out.

"Hi." I replied back quietly.

"Okay, so let's get started with your hair first, then." They led me to my bathroom and set me on a stool, facing my back toward the mirror.

First, they put strawberry shampoo in my hair and then massaged my hair carefully. It felt really good. Next, they put conditioner in my hair and it smelled strangely of strawberry, too. _Funny, I didn't know they had strawberry-scent conditioner_. They slowly massaged through my hair again, and then quickly washed it out. One of the maids brought a towel and she toweled through my hair.

"Okay, on to the set of rollers." I think Vanessa spoke this time.

At once they started pulling at my damp hair and slowly rolling it into the rollers.

"She sure does have a lot of hair." One of the maids said.

"I know. But no need to worry, we have enough rollers to do their magic." The other one said. I sighed. I hated curling my hair, it never worked and I looked ugly. What's more is that my head hurt because of those rollers - were they even necessary? No, I didn't think so.

Once they were done, they brought a range of all the products and set it up on the counter and started. Karen first put mascara on the eyelashes - which felt like they were about to grow five more inches than they actually were - and then Vanessa put a thin line of eyeliner. They stopped.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What color is your dress?" Karen asked.

"Um... Red..." I said.

"Okay, that's good. So where is it?" She asked, while Vanessa continued to smear eyeliner on my eye, looking through the hallway and into my bedroom.

"In my room... Well in my closet." I said and watched her go into my room to bring my dress.

She soon came back. "Wear it." She ordered. "Unless you want us to help you with that." She asked.

"No, no. It's fine. I'll do it." They walked swiftly out of the bathroom and left me with my dress. I closed the door and stripped down my jeans and took off my shirt. _Stupid dress._ I put my arms through the holes and looked down at myself. The dress looked really pretty, to my astonishment. But other than that, nothing else did. I opened the door and the maids were standing right outside it, and came inside.

Vanessa started putting a dark shade of red lipstick on my lips and I tried my best to not move. Then they quickly pulled out the rollers and to my surprise, my hair tumbled down in curls. Their hands moved really fast - just like when Bella was going to prom with Edward and Alice and Rosalie took out the rollers - and from one side, they pulled my hair up and pinned it tightly with a pin. For the rest of the hair, they combed it really lightly, so that it wouldn't mess up the curls and pulled me up.

"The shoes?" Vanessa asked. I was too shocked to speak. How could my hair be _curly!_ But I found my voice and spoke.

"Under my bed." And Vanessa ran to my bedroom and got the shoes. They were, of course, bright red, and were shimmering, just like my dress.

"Let's go to your bedroom." I let them take me and went to sit on my bed.

They pulled out a dark red nail polish, from their bag, and quickly painted it on my nails. It only took them two minutes and then another two minutes for it to dry so that they could help me put my shoes on. Then Vanessa quickly got up and pulled me along with her. She brought me to my parent's bedroom - which I don't usually go into because I have no need to go in there, and then presented me in front of the long, oval-ish shaped, shining mirror.

"Here, look, and tell me what you see." Vanessa said. I heard footsteps, again, and saw that Karen had come to stand by Vanessa's side.

I looked at the mirror, looking at the reflection of the girl... I thought was me but I couldn't even recognize the girl - her light brown hair, which had somehow turned to a chestnut color, cascades of it curled gracefully down her shoulders, her hazel eyes bright and excited, and her round face was somehow changed to be an oval shape, her cheekbones pink, mostly because she was blushing but also because of the blush that was put on her.

"See? I told you that you're ready!" Karen said excitedly. But I couldn't speak just yet. I continued to scan over the beautiful girl that was reflected on the mirror.

The dress, the color red, settled on my figure perfectly, the hemline just above my knees, it was a halter style dress, with red sequins embedded over the whole dress. It made it sparkle in lights, which illuminated on to the wall and made the sequins dance.

I breathed in. "Thank you." And then looked out the window in response to the purr of the engine. A black Lincoln was standing along my driveway. "He's here." I heard a familiar voice and looked back to see my mom right behind me. I jumped up and hugged her tightly. "You look beautiful." She said.

I shrugged, unable to speak because of the circumstances, but finally spoke. I looked at her and spoke quietly. "Thanks. It's nothing." She shook her head, and turned me around to face her room's door. I looked at her and was about to ask where she was taking me, but she had already took my hand and was leading me down the stairs. I could feel that I was about to fall down, my stiletto heels, held on only by thick satin ribbons that crossed over my foot and tied in a wide bow behind my ankle. I tightened my grip on my mom's arm and wondered. _How was I ever going to walk straight in these - let alone dance? _Before I had reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard a knock on the door. My heart thumped unevenly at the thought of Mason. My mom beat me to the door and opened it. They started talking and I didn't move. I was too... Shy, I guess you could say that word. I looked at myself again and sighed. _Whatever, I could never be pretty. _But when I looked up, Mason was standing a lot closer to me than I would have imagined. He was looking at me with a sort of admiration and astonishment. I looked back at him, too, with the same expression as he had. He had a black tuxedo on, which was so handsome-looking, a contrast to his skin color. He looked so... Handsome. Then, he lightly took my hand and pulled me to him, leaving no space between us. His face was two inches away from mine and I could see depths through his beautiful eyes. Finally, he broke our stance - but to put his hands around my waist.

We quickly gave each other flowers and went through with the never-ending pictures that were taken by my mom. Mason's hand trailed up to my shoulder then down to my waist, which carried almost all of my weight to the car - because it would have been impossible for me to walk all by myself - and we sat inside. He helped me sit inside and quickly came to the driver's seat. He took my hand and drove with his other hand. I let him gently rub his fingers on mine - it felt really nice. Then he twined his hands in mine.

"You look absurdly beautiful, you know." He said.

I laughed. Beautiful wasn't part of me. Nobody ever called me that. Ever. "You're just joking around." I said and blushed, feeling my cheeks warm up every second.

"No, no. I'm not. I promise." I was staring ahead, not looking at him. What we were talking about was totally irrelevant. "Annabel." His fingers moved to my chin and gripped it tight. "Look at me, please?" The touch tingled at my chin, leaving it warmer than the rest of my body's temperature.

I was surprised. Why did he just ask me that? But I turned my head, unwillingly. "What?" I asked.

He looked at my face again.

"Um... I think you would... Should watch the road..." I trailed off.

He looked startled. "Yeah. Sure. You're right. Wouldn't want to get in an accident or something..." His hands slid down to my fingers again and didn't move it the whole time.

Mason parked really close to the entrance of California's Pizza Kitchen so that I wouldn't have to walk to far.

"Do you want me to help you again?" He asked, somewhat hopefully.

"Um, no it's okay. Thanks." I wished that was true. But it wasn't. I started to walk forward but then my feet started wobbling and I felt like I was going to fall straight on my face. Thankfully, Mason caught me when I almost hit the ground.

"I'll hold on to you." He said and smiled. He looked absolutely stunning right now. I couldn't believe that he's actually... Mine... Kind of, right now - ish.

We soon got inside and Mason and I went to a table far from the crowd. I guess he wanted privacy as much as I had wanted - just to be with him.

I sat on one side of the table and he the other. I wished that he would sit by me, but... I refused to think about that too much. I looked at him and saw him watching the wall - the sequins on my dress reflected from the brilliantly glowing lights above were illuminated on the wall, making it seem like a dance of some sort.

"So, what do you want to eat?" He asked.

"Um..." I quickly scanned the menu and choose the first thing on it. "Salad."

"That's it?" He asked.

"Mhm." I didn't want to eat too much before dancing... In fact, dancing was the last thing I wanted to do. With these heels on, all I would be doing is just stand, leaning on the wall, on the floor and watching other people dance.

"Okay." We waited for the waiter to come and he spoke, again.

"You look really pretty." I rolled my eyes and he chuckled. "I'm serious." He repeated. "I couldn't see you the way I wanted - in the car. But now... I can." I looked to my left and changed the subject.

"I didn't know you were going to pick me up... At my house... I mean." What was I saying? I didn't know? Of course I did! Or did I?

"You didn't? Oh, sorry." He apologized immediately.

"It's okay. I was happy to see you anyway." I replied. Talking about the way I felt about him was even easier than before.

He leaned in closer and I automatically did, too. We were five inches apart and I felt like closing that in again. "Annabel..." He trailed off.

"What?" I asked, did I say something wrong?

"I have to tell you something."

"Sure."

"I know this sounds really cheesy and all, but I really like you. Not just a little crush... But I really like you." He said and looked right into my eyes.

"I feel the same way about you, too, Mason." I sighed. Except I _loved_ him. Not just like...

"Since when?" He asked, suddenly curious.

"What?" He seriously must think that I was mentally retarded.

"Since when do you like me?"

"Do you really want to know?" I asked teasingly.

"Yes. I do." He said, seriously.

"Well, then... I liked you since..." And I trailed off, and started over again. "You would have to guess, then. I'm not telling until you guess it right." I smirked at him.

"That's not fair."

"Is to."

"Fine." He looked at me straight in my eyes, again, and didn't take his eyes off. "Since... The time... I sat by you? In English... Remember?" Of course I remembered. The first time he had touched me...

I must have looked horrified because he quickly spoke. "I was kidding..." He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes.

"You won't ever guess it right." I whispered.

"I would."

"No, you won't. I'll just tell you. The first time I saw you." I looked up to see his expression and saw that he _was_ surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I told you, you won't ever guess it right." I mumbled and looked down. Then all of a sudden I felt arms around me - I didn't even hear him move.

"I really like you." He whispered in my ear.

"Since when?" And we both laughed.

"Since forever." He said seriously.

"Ha ha. Sure." I said teasingly.

The waiter arrived, thankfully because I was afraid I might die from starvation - right before homecoming. That would have been good news to deliver. _Wow I must be going insane after all. _Mason and I ate in silence for a while and then he started another topic.

"So you don't mind being with me? All alone." I could tell he was teasing, even though I didn't look up to see his face.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?" I smiled.

"Well... Because I might... I don't know." He admitted.

I laughed. "Anyways, I saw you looking at the Metallica poster on the school bulletin board the other day..."

"You spying on me?" He chuckled.

"Well... Yeah. I am." I grinned and saw him grinning back.

"Have to say... I like that." And he winked. He actually winked at me. Who does that? No one. At all. Right? I mean, no one.

"Are you done?" He asked, looking at my finished plate.

"Yep. Are you?" I asked, looking down his his finished plate, too.

"Yeah. Here, I'll just pay..." And he called the waiter. Pay? For me? Did I even bring my money with me? No... I didn't. Crap.

"How much do you have to pay?" I asked, curiously. Would I have to pay him back?

"Um... $32.68. And don't you dare get your money out and pay for this." He said sternly.

"Uh... Well... Would you let me..."

"No paying back later either. Now, let's go to homecoming or else we'll be late."

He didn't even let me argue. Yeesh. Pushy, pushy, pushy.

He helped me, once again, even with my strenuous protests - I didn't want to seem like I couldn't walk. But that was exactly the case. He drove really fast this time and we got to the school in less than ten minutes. Once again, he helped me out; this time I let him and he put his hands around my waist. He pulled me against his body and this time my heart was fluttering really fast. His face came really close to mine and I could feel this breath - still minty fresh after eating - brush over my face. In a matter of seconds I felt a slight pressure against my lips - a feather light touch. Mason's hands around my waist tightened and with it, his lips became urgent. Thank God I'd worn water-proof lipstick, which meant it wasn't going to come off so easily, because the way we were kissing now, my lipstick would have probably smeared Mason's face. My breathing gradually increased toward hyperventilation and so was Mason's. His lips just slipped through my lips once but he pulled back quickly. He looked at me and kissed me once, twice, thrice... Eight times. I could feel his warmth in me; everywhere around me, inside and out. I was tingling all over and this time I pulled away. I needed air. This was too much for my head. Mason. Just. Kissed. Me. No freaking way! I was about to faint... He pulled me back against him again and kissed me one last time. Then he suddenly pulled me away, and then moved me gently back, whispering in my ear. "I'll always be with you. Forever." He said and embraced me in his arms.

"Annie! Annabel! Annieeee! Annie!" I heard my friends calling out to me. I pulled away and craned my neck to find them. Then all of a sudden, they were standing right beside me. I secretly wondered if all of them were vampires. But, of course, I was the most vampiric of all. I smiled in spite of myself.

"Hey." I said quietly.

"Hey." Mason said in the same soft tone. I could tell we were both under a spell right now, completely unaware of our surroundings.

_Did my friends see me kiss Mason? _I felt myself blush. _Great._

"So... Um... Let's go inside?" Giselle asked.

"Wait, wait, let's take a good look at you first." Kristen said.

They all towed us to a street lamp and I looked at them and gasped. They all looked like angels fallen from heaven and here I was, looking like a... A... Zombie! My friends were all standing in a line of sort, so I started from the left. Heidi.

She had put little make - up on, because her skin was better bare without a lot of it and her hair was down, gracefully, just below her shoulder. Her dress, which was black, had a v - neck line straight fitting dress. The silver sequins were intricately placed throughout the neckline. The silver sequin continued throughout the dress for delicately placed triangle patterns on the dress. The dress fit her figure perfectly. She looked like a runway princess.

Next, I saw Giselle. Giselle's hair was just a little curled from the tips of her shiny, blonde hair, which rolled down just below her shoulder. Her dress was green, with delicate spaghetti straps around her neck. The embroidery done on her dress was glistening in the glowing moonlight. Then in the center of the dress was a huge green bow which trailed down to her waist. The hemline was just below her knees. Her dress also settled on her figure perfectly. I tore my eyes away from her dress and looked at her face. She was blushing. She also didn't put a lot of make - up on. Just a brush of mascara, eyeliner, blush, and lipstick. The lipstick was a really light pink - just enough to bring out her stunning beauty.

After that, I saw Beatrice and Kristen. They both had the almost the same color dress and had their hair down, which gently went down to their shoulders. Beatrice's dress was the color royal blue. This dress had thick spaghetti straps that hung on to her shoulders perfectly. There was a wide, thick bow the wrapped around her waist. The hemline was just above her knees, and the dress flared out around her body. Next to Beatrice stood Kristen, with a dress so pretty that I could only stare. It was a sort of turquoise underneath the actual dress and it was a light shade of black - if there was a light shade of black, which I'm pretty sure there wasn't. Both of them brushed on a little make - up, which made them look absolutely surreal.

Shawna looked really different from when I saw her - except her hair, which was in a bun. Her dress - brown - also had delicate spaghetti straps, with a large satin bow, just like Giselle's except it was brown, which trailed down from her waist. There were pockadots - silver, gold, black - scattered all over the dress and it slightly become more scattered when it reached the hem of her dress. Her face, with just a dab of blush and eyeliner and lipstick looked glorious.

Lastly, Audra, with her dark hair curly piled on top of her head, stood, looking back at me. Her dress had a v - neck shape to it, just like Heidi's, which gently trailed down to her knees, like water just streaming down the lake. Audra didn't put on any make - up and yet she till looked utterly alluring.

All I could do was stare at these angels from heaven like an idiot.

The squealing is what took me out of my reverie. My friends were squealing. _Oh, no. Please no._

"You look so pretty!"

"Like an angel!"

"I love your dress!"

And the compliments kept coming until I spoke, the first time after all the squealing.

"Can we go inside, now?" I asked nervously. I didn't like being on spot. But to my relief, everybody agreed. _Dear God, please help me. I can't even dance for my life._ And I stumbled my way to the school, while Mason held all my weight.

"It's okay, we'll pounce on you later." Giselle came by me and chuckled when I rolled my eyes.

"We'll see." I winked at her and she left me alone to be with Mason, while we made our way through the crowded hallway.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I keep forgetting to do the disclaimer! **

**Disclaimer: FAAAAAANNNfiction**

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** Chapter 8 - *Faints* Homecoming. Dancing. Help me! **:

As we entered the student center, Mason by my side - paying for the homecoming tickets, I saw how crowded the place was. People were everywhere, trying to dance, but all that came out was a robotic type of dance. I giggled.

"May I be in on the joke?" Mason asked.

"It's not a very good one." I said while I giggled again.

He raised his eyebrows. "Look at how people are dancing." I suggested. He looked around and a smile played on his lips.

"Yeah, I see what you mean." He said, a smile still on his face.

"Shall we?" He asked, taking my hand and putting his other hand around my waist.

"What? Oh no, please no. Tell me you're kidding. We're going to dance? In all this...?" I gestured around me.

"It's okay. You have me." He chuckled.

"Yeah, my hero." I said sarcastically and laughed. He laughed with me, but still pulled me into the crowd.

"Oh c'mon, it's not that bad... Is it?" Mason asked curiously.

"No... But only because I'm doing it with you!" I laughed. Did he know how cheesy I sounded?

"No way." He smiled.

The slow song ended - and I didn't even know which one it was but it abruptly changed to another one. I quickly realized it and was suddenly happy. Don't stop the music. I love that song!

_It's getting late... I'm making my way over to my favorite place, I gotta get my body movin' shake the stress away... Do you know what to start it, I just came here to party... Your hands around my waist... _

Both of Mason's hands slid slowly down to my waist, making my shiver wherever he touched. He leaned in close to me and whispered lightly in my ear.

"You're a great dancer, you know." I heard him say.

I laughed quietly. "Sure I am." I rolled my eyes.

He turned my waist so that I was facing him. Just like I had wanted, he closed in the gap between us by pulling me closer and then once again, our lips touched. Only a little. It wasn't like the kiss that we had when he took me out of the car, but this kiss was full of desire. That was all I had wanted. A desired kiss. Maybe even more. A different type of kiss. But I didn't know if I was ready. Mason pecked my cheeks and I would have bet that he felt my cheeks burning.

"Mmm..." He touched my cheek with his cheek and hugged me.

"What?" I murmured.

"You're very warm. Especially your cheeks." Yep, he noticed.

"Thanks." I felt my cheeks warming up once again. _This was so embarrassing! _

Mason moved his cheek from mine but just to replace it with his lips, which slowly slid down to the corner of my mouth. I started hyperventilating. I didn't know why, but I did. I guess some reactions take over you without you even knowing why it was happening.

"Hey Annabel!" Audra said.

"Hey guys..." I said uncomfortably and saw all my friends come up from behind her.

"Um... So did you guys dance?" Shawna asked.

"Uh..." I said, but Mason answered for me.

"Yeah, we just were." His hands, which were still on my waist, turned me so that I was facing my friends now.

"Oh cool!" Beatrice said.

I smiled. "So did you guys dance, too?" I asked. Surely I would have seen them...

"Nah we just looked around and went out for air and then we came back in..." Giselle trailed off. Never mind about them dancing, then.

"Oh." Was all I could say.

"Yeah and then we found you!" Kristen said. I could tell they were about to squeal again.

"Anyways, um, we'll just... Roam around and be back soon, okay?" Heidi said.

What? They were leaving me? Why?

Apparently everybody had the same expression as me - except Mason. He was looking at me.

"Okay... Bye, Annie.... See you later!" Everybody muttered. They left and I could tell they were asking why Heidi told them to leave - for me to have some private time with Mason. How romantic. Actually, that is romantic, I noticed with delight.

Mason nuzzled his face on my neck and we stayed there for a while, swaying from side to side to the music - but not really listening to it, not wanting to ruin the beautiful moment.

He finally broke our stance and took me outside and I was grateful for that. I didn't think that I could breathe in the student center. It was so claustrophobic. How could people dance without having that nauseous feeling at the bottom of their stomach?

As soon as we got outside, I sighed in relief. I took a deep breath and didn't blow it out until I thought that I was ready to. All the while Mason was quietly watching me, which was bizarre for him because he always had things he wanted to say. But now he seemed like he was speechless.

"What?" I asked, when I was done with breathing in and out slowly.

"Nothing." He replied.

"Mhm. Sure." I said and went to sit down on one of the benches. He came with me and helped me sit.

"It's okay if I kiss you, right?" He asked.

I looked at him and smiled widely. "Of course." I said quickly.

He grinned and said. "Then I hope you don't mind..."

I was about to ask what but his mouth came on mine hard. It was like adrenaline started to pump through my veins, blurring out all my vision. I felt like I was pulled under a spell. A _kiss spell_, I should say. His lips moved with mine, like they were synchronized. His minty smell seeped through me and I loved it. The feeling of his lips were so soft that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Even though it was still burning outside, Mason was even warmer. But at the moment I didn't care. The feeling of fuzziness overwhelmed me. Every time his tongue slipped through my lips, it made me dizzy. My hands were suddenly wrapped around his neck and I pulled him closer to me. I couldn't bare even the littlest distance between us. Even he pulled me closer and I felt every part of my body connected with his. Like we were never separated. Like we were always together. Never apart.

We stayed there for a while, him cradled me in his arms, never letting go of me even once. I saw the sky turning from a baby blue to streaks of orange and red spread across the sky. Mason's hand moved over my forehead for just a second and I realized what he was doing. Or what he did. Some part of my curly hair must have been resting on my forehead, so Mason brushed it out with his fingers.

"You know," I said slowly, "I've never felt this happy in my life ever before." I said, astonished at how true these words were.

"Really?" He murmured softly.

"Yeah."

He came close to my forehead, but this time he kissed it gently. I closed my eyes and tried to remember this feeling forever. This feeling that I've never had before. It was such a sweet, romantic, and full of desire feeling that I wish I would feel it forever.

"Why not?" He asked, interrupting my ogling.

"Hm?" I was still woozy from the kiss.

"Why have you never felt this way before?" He spoke gently.

"Oh... Um..." Because I was a klutz - still am, and I guess... I didn't even know what happened to me once I got here. My life was totally and completely changed starting from the part where I made friend_s_, instead of a friend.

"Yeah?" He prompted.

I shook my head. "Nah, nothing." I said as he leaned down on me again, his lips just hovering above mine. He stopped two inches from my lips, which were eagerly waiting to be kissed, and smirked.

"Ready?" He asked, his breath washing away all my thoughts and left them all confused.

"For...?" I prompted.

But he didn't even let me finish because right when I opened my mouth, again, his lips came down on mine, except his tongue slid in fully now. I could feel the sudden tension between our lips, tongues, which were moving together, never letting each other's go. Mason put his hands underneath me, and pulled me up, cradling me, while our lips were still moving together. I didn't know where we were going and I didn't care. All I wanted was us together, mouths always together, like they were super - glued forever. Mason pulled me closer to him, and he touched the part of my dress, resting on my thigh, and smoothed it out, then pulled it down a little. I opened my eyes, not noticing that they had automatically closed, and saw that we were standing right outside Mason's car. I turned my head a little to see the car, for some odd reason, but Mason's lips pushed hard against mine, forcing me to keep my head as still as I could, and his tongue explored my mouth.

I pushed away, too embarrassed to do it in the parking lot. What if someone sees us making out? _Gah!_

"What's wrong?" Mason looked disappointed.

"I think.. Inside the car would be better." I suggested.

"Good idea." He said and took out the car keys from his pocket. He held me up with only one hand and unlocked the car with the other. He gently put me in the back seat and quickly came around the other door, to sit beside me.

"Better?" He asked, quietly, yet his voice was filled with desire.

"Definitely," and I pulled him up to me.

"One second." He said and I growled, not wanting him to go away. He smiled, but locked the car doors. _Ah, privacy, _I smiled.

"That's much better." I approved.

Mason scooted himself under me and then put one of his hands on my neck and the other on my hip. I didn't wait for him to pull me closer - I just did it. This time, my lips were hard on his, moving in urgent ways. But, Mason beat me where he put his tongue through my mouth, which I was _going _to do, and finally explored it. His tongue slithered through my mouth, and I started feeling dizzy. I had to remember to breathe. My mouth tickled in places Mason's tongue touched it. My hands tightened around his hair - ruining it, I thought, but I didn't care. His hands moved to my waist, both of them and tightened around there. Once, my tongue and his tongue lingered on each other's for just a second or so, but then I moved mine back, letting myself surrender to him. I felt like I was floating on water, and just... Peacefully watching the world blur by, with just me and Mason stuck in the same time period, but at a different time period, too. Mason's hand slid down from my wait to my inner thigh and he gently moved it up, his hand sliding down to my ankle and back up. His hand stopped at my ankle and quickly removed my shoes.

He pulled me up, again, and I was sitting on his lap, now. He slid my sleeve down and put his hand there. I could feel his breath against my shoulders and I shivered. He pulled me closer to him, his hands around my waist, again, and kissed my shoulder, my collar bone, my back... I shivered even more, which made Mason move away from my shoulders, but he kissed the top of my head.

We stayed like that for how long, I don't know, but frankly, I didn't care. But then I remembered the reality and jerked up.

"What happened?" Mason asked.

"I have to go meet my friends... What time is it?" I asked, blearily.

"Uh..." He took out his cellphone, and responded. "7:30."

"Crap I was supposed to meet them half an hour ago!"

"It's okay, I don't think they would mind that much." He spoke, almost soothingly and leaned down to kiss me again.

I pulled away. "Not right now, Mason. I have to go see them." I bent down to grab my shoes, but Mason's hands restrained me from even an inch.

"Just one more... Please?" He asked, quietly.

I gave up. It's only one more kiss, right? What could happen? "Fine. One." I sighed and waited for him.

He pushed me down gently on the seat and leaned over me. His lips came on mine softer than before, more or less lighter. I put my arms around his neck, like I always did, and he gently pulled on my lips between his. My head grew cloudy and I couldn't think.

I tried speaking, but then Mason was getting out of hand. His lips were slightly harder between mine and I felt like I was going to faint if I didn't start to breathe soon.

I tried, as best as I could, very gently, to push Mason away, and he finally obeyed. He looked down at me, his eyes twinkling, and a huge grin was spread across his face. In a way, I was glad, that I had kissed him, but in others... I wasn't so sure.

"Let's go." He finally pulled me up and got my shoes. I was glad that he helped me put on my shoes; some parts he couldn't get like I had wanted. For instance the bow, which tied around my ankle, I tied it.

When we were done, I looked at the front mirror, of the car, and sighed contentedly. My curly hair remained curled, and didn't even get ruined from our kissing. Wow. I was proud of myself. Me. Us. Whatever.

I got out of the car, and Mason came around the car to help me get up. Mercifully, he held my weight the whole time because I was stumbling my way to the school. Soon enough, we got to the school, but I still didn't see my friends. Maybe they were inside.

"Inside?" Mason guessed.

I just nodded, and he wobbled with me inside to the claustrophobic, extremely hot student center. I prayed to find my friends. There was a lot of stuff that they needed to know about today, and I couldn't wait.

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